Kiir, Machar agree ‘in principle’ to postpone elections: official

JUBA – A senior opposition official from the main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) has said that the group’s leader, Riek Machar Teny, has come into consensus with President Salva Kiir Mayardit to postpone the 2024 elections.

The opposition official, speaking on condition of anonymity, did not indicate when the agreement was reached but said the two rivals “agreed in principle” to push back the elections and were tailoring the terms, including the extended transitional period.

“The chairman and commander-in-chief and the first vice president, H.E Dr. Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon has agreed with Salva Kiir to postpone the election,” he said.

“He proposed the extension and because everyone including our internal partners see that there is no possibility for elections, Salva has agreed in principle for the idea,” he told Sudans Post yesterday.

The senior official said that the two men will form a team of experts to work on tailoring down the terms of the agreement, including the timeframe for elections and also on issues of concerns to us such as the unilateral actions that are usually taken by the president.

“The two principals will form a team of experts from the two main parties and that would include civil society organizations that will work together to make sure that the terms of the extension are proportionate to the remaining tasks provided for in the revitalized peace agreement,” he said.

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in July 2011. Civil war broke out two years before planned elections could take place in 2015.

The warring parties, led by Kiir and Machar, signed a peace deal in 2015 that collapsed a year later.

In September 2018, the two men signed a revitalized version of that agreement, with elections postponed several times.

The last extension of the transitional period was in August 2022, with elections scheduled for December this year.

But the parties have agreed to implement key benchmarks for elections set forth in the revitalized peace agreement.

The international community, as well as the opposition parties such as SPLM-IO, have previously warned that elections with unimplemented peace tasks would return the country to war.